Robbers kill trader, take 50 ATM cards

Two men on a motorcycle made off with P100,000 in cash plus 50 automated teller machine (ATM) cards and a list of the personal identification number (PIN) for each ATM card after they killed a 44-year-old businessman on Tuesday night in Quezon City.

Quezon City Police District (QCPD) investigators said that Jesus Gamba, a moneylender from San Jose del Monte City in Bulacan province, died on the spot after he was shot twice when he tried to fight off one of the robbers.

Senior Police Officer 1 Joselito Gagaza of the QCPD’s Criminal Investigation and Detection Unit said that Gamba had been loaning money to his coworkers at a pipe manufacturing firm on Kaingin Road for the past four years.

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To facilitate payment, debtors turned over their ATM cards to him so that he would be able to withdraw the amount they owed him.

According to Gagaza, the robbers struck at 11 p.m. on Tuesday on J. Aquino Cruz Street near Sto. Domingo Avenue in Barangay (village) Balingasa just minutes after Gamba withdrew around P100,000 from a bank’s ATM on Grace Avenue.

The victim was headed home on his motorcycle when his path by blocked by two men who were also on a motorcycle.

Witnesses told the police that one of the men alighted from the vehicle and took out a gun, which he pointed at Gamba.

He then grabbed the victim’s bag but Gamba resisted and grappled with him until they both fell to the ground.

Gagaza said that while the victim was down, a witness heard the motorcycle driver telling his cohort to shoot the businessman in case he was armed.

The two then fled with Gamba’s bag, which contained the money he had just withdrawn from the bank along with his coworkers’ ATM cards and a list of the PIN for each card.